Music rags love to do lists of best/worst album art. I think we need some nominations for best/worst book covers (in political science, of course).
I've always liked the cover for Ikenberry's "After Victory." I guess in general I tend to like covers that use real art. One exception is Peter Swenson's "Capitalists Against Markets," which has some hideous futurist painting on the cover. Ugly stuff.
The Cambridge political economy of institutions & decisions series: the worst cover art in all of polisci.
The cover for Ruggie's compendium of essays (Constructing the World Polity?) looks like a Pink Floyd album, and not in a good way.
I like the cover of Anne Norton's first book, Alternative Americas.
Cox's Making Elections Count = great book, terrible cover.
^that's not even the name of the book, dumbass
The Cambridge political economy of institutions & decisions series: the worst cover art in all of polisci.
Cox's Making Elections Count = great book, terrible cover.
I think we're reaching a consensus.
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Zaller's 1992 book cover is hideous - the parable of purple land and triangles
The original cover for Bates' Markets and States in Tropical Africa looks like fudge and lemonade, if you know what I mean.
^^^^I meant "Making Votes Count." Clearly an error, though "dumbass" was uncalled for.
Zaller's 1992 book cover is hideous - the parable of purple land and triangles
Wowee, that might take the cake. It's like something out of Star Trek.
"The Cambridge political economy of institutions & decisions series: the worst cover art in all of polisci."
Are these the ones with the "vomiting Pacman" theme?
"Zaller's 1992 book cover is hideous - the parable of purple land and triangles"
There was somebody visually deranged and obsessed with triangles at CUP in the early 1990s. Also see, for example, John Waterbury's Exposed to Innumerable Delusions (published the year after Zaller's book).
How about the cover of the most recent edition of Anderson's Imagined Communities? The original cover wasn't half bad, either.
Old: http://www.amazon.com/Imagined-Communities-Reflections-Origin-Nationalism/dp/0860915468/ref=ed_oe_p
One of the weirdest is Linz and Stepan's Problems of Democratic Consolidation, which appears to be depicting a stone head about to be flung away by a gigantic rubber band.
^ That was me. I forgot to log in.
We've recently seen a trend towards more "popping" and visually appealing covers on academic books. Compare the recent releases at PUP (http://press.princeton.edu/wnew.html) or CUP (http://www.cambridge.org/us/politicalscience/) to the early 1990s and 1980s books under discussion. Even the infamous Cambridge Studies in International Relations Series ("choose your color") now sports images. I imagine cheaper printing prices is part of the reason, but the major one is the need to draw attention to the kind of thumbnail images found on Amazon and other online vendors.
Actually, the "me" is now ^^^
And I meant that the new cover of Imagined Communities is horrific, so we're looking at a decline in cover quality.
I'm a theorist - we often have awful covers, but I do like the 1999 edition of Rawls's 'A Theory of Justice'. Simple, but effective.
Zaller's book. Hands down. It looks like I gave a group of preschoolers peyote and told them to paint something.
I like my own book cover.
Along with the Cambridge Political Economy series theme, what is that guy on the front of Norman Schofield's book (Architects of Political Change) doing? Also, if you stand really close and stare at a cover of Bednar's book long enough, you can see a 3D sail boat.
I also love the cover of my book.
I think we covered this territory before, perhaps on the earlier incarnation of this blog, since I can't seem to find it here. Anyway, as I recall (since I started that earlier thread), there was some consensus about the following bad covers:
Linz & Stepan's "stone head slingshot" (1996):
http://www.yale.edu/sociology/faculty/pages/linz/book_probDemTrans.html?height=565&width=360
Cheibub's "sunset falling off a cliff" (2006):
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Presidentialism-Parliamentarism-and-Democracy/Jose-Antonio-Cheibub/e/9780521542449
Keohane's... uummmmm...? (1984)
http://images.ebookmall.com/lsi/s-image/1/1400809193.jpg
Torben Iversen's "tribute to the Partridge Family" (2005):
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Capitalism-Democracy-and-Welfare/Torben-Iversen/e/9780521613071/?itm=10
Anything in the "Vomiting Pacman series" of Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Money-Markets-and-the-State/Ton-Notermans/e/9780521033268/?itm=38
Anything in the *yawn* Cornell Studies in Political Economy Series:
http://imshopping.rediff.com/imgchkbooks/220-220/books/pixs/62/0801494362.jpg
Peter Evans' Golden Circuit Board (1995):
http://press.princeton.edu/images/k5690.gif
My personal razzie goes to horrible use of colors in Robert Putnam's _Making Democracy Work_
http://www.campusbookstore.com/textbooks/details/9780691037387-making-democracy-work-civic-traditions-in-modern-italy-by-robert-d-putnam-robert-leonardi-raffaella-y-nanetti
Not shown: the hardcover version: puke-green cover with burnt orange inlays.
To his credit, Putnam atoned with _Bowling Alone_
http://www.inkundla.net/images/bowlingalone1.jpg
As for album covers--here are my bottom tem--and I won't tell you which three of these I actually own on vinyl, as a manager of an independent record store in my previous life... (okay, one of them is #6).
10) http://blog.rivalschools.tv/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/worstalbumcovers24.jpg
9) http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/2655534263_4b8815bd85.jpg
8) http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s58/Zboy007/worst-album-covers-20.jpg
7) http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qT-kf8quf0A/SXEpZRnwmzI/AAAAAAAAAMM/r4mWLntITqg/s400/worst-album-covers-02.jpg
6) http://media.photobucket.com/image/fat%20boys/analcunt420/fatboys.jpg
5) http://hamptonroads.metromix.com/music/photogallery/worst-album-covers-ever/421665/photo/421689
4) http://chicago.metromix.com/content_image/full/421687/560/370
3) http://www.londonlee.com/blog/pics/millie.jpg
2) http://sis.slowli.com/images/joyce1.jpg
1) ...
I could not find an image of the #1 worst album cover of all time, but I did find said artists' futile attempt at a music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZt524B8yU Just imagine what these guys would look like on an album cover, and you'd probably be right.
" 10) http://blog.rivalschools.tv/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/worstalbumcovers24.jpg "
Hey now, don't hate on Heino, he may have eyes like a chameleon but he can sure make a catchy tune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icgIm99YQsU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-v5ShRyUo
I see the Partridge Family resemblance, but Iversen's book cover is obviously just another example of the ever-popular Mondrian-copping. Not that that excuses it...
How much do the authors actually get to decide what the cover looks like? Should we blame them?
Best book cover:
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Trust-Matters-Declining-Liberalism/dp/0691117764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238547938&sr=8-1
